“Cervical cancer prevention, screening and treatment are neglected in low- and middle-income countries,” though there have been “substantial reductions in death rates and increased access to reproductive health care in those nations in recent years,” according to an essay published on Tuesday in PLOS Medicine, HealthDay reports. The researchers from…

“Fewer teens are smoking in Taiwan since 2009, when strict smoke-free policies, cigarette advertising bans and other anti-tobacco measures were put into place, according to a new study,” Reuters reports. The study, published in the journal Addiction, found “[s]tudents who reported ever having smoked decreased from 27 percent in 2004…

“India and the U.S. should expand their collaborations at a global level and work jointly together to address range of issues like poverty, child deaths, food security, conservation of natural resources and international peace,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President Barack Obama said in a joint statement following…

“Reports of fraudulent medicines in the southwest Pacific island states of Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea have drawn attention to the need for more public awareness of the lethal trade and its tragic consequences,” Inter Press Service reports. “The extent of fraudulent pharmaceuticals in the Melanesian islands is unknown,…

“Dengue fever has killed 45 people in Malaysia this year — a jump of more than a third from the same period last year — as the tropical country struggles to tame a mosquito-borne virus outbreak that has plagued the Southeast Asian region for decades,” the Wall Street Journal’s “Southeast…

“New data published [last week] by China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission indicate that there are more than 13 million abortions conducted in the country every year,” TIME reports. The data “only account for surgical procedures conducted at licensed hospitals and clinics, and don’t take into account medically induced…

“Half of India’s states would be ready to roll out the federal food aid program by the end of this year, the food minister said Tuesday, as the government tries to speed up the implementation of the centerpiece of its policy agenda ahead of elections,” the Wall Street Journal reports.…

“Laos became the first South East Asian nation to introduce pneumococcal vaccine and began a demonstration project for HPV vaccine at a ceremony in the nation’s capital Vientiane Wednesday,” Xinhua reports. “About 180,000 infants will receive the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and 13,000 girls will receive the human papillomavirus (HPV)…

“October 2, 2013, is the 144th birthday of [Mahatma Gandhi] and what better way for the Bill & Melinda Gates [Foundation] to celebrate this profound and inspirational leader than to announce our new partnership with [the government of India] in joint funding the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) to…

“From donkey ambulatory services for pregnant women in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan to free caesarean sections in Congo, reports about global efforts to improve maternal health were showcased in the past week as development experts gathered in various forums here during the U.N. General Assembly session from September 17…